On Sunday Nigeria bled into the streets in another of a series of brutal attacks that have been occuring in the African country between Northern Muslims and the Southern Christians. On this day over 200 Christians would be savagely slaughtered. Some estimates are as high as 500. Survivors say Christian villagers were trapped in nets and hacked to death by Muslim herdsman. The killers planted nets and animal traps outside the huts of the villagers, mainly peasant farmers, fired weapons in the air, then attacked with machetes, according to human rights lawyer Shehu Sani of the nongovernment Civil Rights Congress, who visited the villages and interviewed dozens of survivors. “People came out of their houses and started falling into the animal traps and mosquito nets and then they were hacked down,” he said. “They were the kind of traps used for wild animals.”

In January over 300 mostly Muslim people were violently killed. Sunday’s attack appears to be a revenge attack as a result of the January massacres. The Northern section of Nigeria is mostly Muslim while the Southern part of Nigeria is predominantly Christian. The violence is occurring in the villages that are in the overlapping range or the center of the country. This religious line is in an area where both Christians and Muslims are hoping to control.

The Rev. Pandang Yamsat, the president of a local Christian group, said he has urged his congregation not to respond violently to Muslims. However, he said he believes Muslims in the area want to control the region and that any peace talks would only give Muslims “time to conquer territory with swords.”

“We have done our best to tell our members, ‘don’t go and attack Muslims, they are your brother,’” Yamsat said. However, “‘if they come to dislodge you in your place, stand to defend yourself.’”

Residents said herders from nearby hills attacked their village at about 3am on Sunday, shooting into the air before using machetes to cut down those who came out of their homes

Thousands have died in these conflicts that have been waged over the last decade. It appears that the violence is not going to stop any time soon in Africa’s most populous country. This year is already becoming one of the most bloody and it is only March.

Nigerian authorities have arrested nearly a hundred people in connection with attacks near the central city of Jos

If you think the average American is fed up with greedy oil companies draining all the loose change out of their jars just to keep the family car on the road you will be shocked at how The Movement For The Emancipation Of The Niger Delta terrorist organization is dealing with what they see is an exploitation by big oil of the people and resources of the Niger Delta along central Africa’s Western Coastline.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest and most complex country, with a population of 120 million people from over 250 tribes. The vast, swampy terrain of the Niger Delta region supports almost 20 million people, many of them in isolated communities only accessible by boat. The Niger Delta serves as the economic nerve center of the Nigeria Federation with its vast oil deposits. Presently, crude oil accounts for about 85% of the nation’s revenue. Oil from the Niger Delta accounts for 20% of oil supply to the US, and has become increasingly important from a strategic perspective as conflicts continue in the Middle East.

This blessing has become a curse for the people of the Niger Delta. They have suffered environmental devastation, economic poverty, and constant conflict. To make matters even worse, political considerations and greed on the part of a corrupt government partnered with some of the biggest names in oil have kept many of the revenue from these vast reserves from returning to the Niger Delta to help protect and restore the damage don to the region.

MAP OF NIGERIA

For the last fifty years since Nigeria declared independence from British colonial rule, oil has been produced in the country. Throughout this period corporate politics has worked with successive dictatorships. Under these dictatorships Nigeria has enacted laws that gave up oil resources and placed these under the control of international oil companies, such as Chevron, and most notably, Shell. The Movement For The Emancipation of the Niger Delta, known as MEND, is fighting for the complete control of the Oil wealth attributed to the Niger Delta’s abundance of the black gold that is creating tensions around the globe as fear grows that future supplies are dwindling. MEND feels that locals in the region have been forced to live in poverty without being provided the simplest of necessities as big oil companies supported by a series of dictators have destroyed their environment and shifted the money to other parts of Nigeria and around the globe. Everyone is benefiting from the resource except for the people of the Niger Delta.

From the point of view of MEND, and its supporters, the people of the Niger Delta have suffered an unprecedented degradation of their environment due to unchecked pollution produced by the oil industry. As a result of this policy of dispossessing people from their lands in favor of foreign oil interests, within a single generation, many now have no ability to fish or farm. Their environment is being overran and ruined.  When oil production activities are intensified or activated in a very dedicated manner, riverbank erosion results, gas flares occur frequently, forests are cut down, rivers and streams are dredged, turned into canals or blocked and then polluted. Farms and sacred lands are not spared either; they may be acquired for oil and gas development or polluted, as production gets under way. Anything that is seen to obstruct or have the semblance of serving as obstruction to the free flow of oil is uprooted and destroyed, whether it is a human being, a community or a stream

Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest oil exporters and yet most Delta residents live in poverty.
While Mend and the other militant groups claim to be standing up for Delta residents, other locals feel they are just oil thieves.  The region is home to a huge industry of stealing oil and selling it on the black market.
This trade is believed to fund the purchase of weapons.

In a January 2006 email MEND warned the oil industry, “It must be clear that the Nigerian government cannot protect your workers or assets. Leave our land while you can or die in it…. Our aim is to totally destroy the capacity of the Nigerian government to export oil

Mend is at war with it’s government and the victim is often the oil companies operating in the country.  The group says it will not quit until all foreign companies leave the Delta and no longer deal with the Nigerian government.

The September 2008 MEND Attacks:

September 19, 2008  Nigeria’s main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, says it attacked a fifth oil facility in the strife-torn Niger southern Niger Delta. The region has been wracked by five days of stepped-up raids on oil installations since rebels declared an oil war last weekend.

September 17, 2008  Nigerian militants threatened on Wednesday to broaden their “oil war” to offshore oilfields and announced attacks on a crude oil pipeline in the Niger Delta and another Shell-operated facility.  The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have cut a fifth of OPEC member Nigeria’s oil output, said it would launch attacks outside Rivers state for the first time since clashes began on Saturday  The heaviest fighting between militants and security forces in more than two years has spread to about 10 villages in Rivers state, home to oil city Port Harcourt. Some private security sources estimate dozens have died.

September 16, 2008 The most prominent armed group in southern Nigeria said early Wednesday it has destroyed the Orubiri flow station operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Rivers state.  The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it carried out the attack in cooperation with another armed group, the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF). “About 2200 (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, fighters from MEND and the NDVF in a new alliance attacked and destroyed the Orubiri flow station,” MEND said in an email to the media. There was no immediate comment from Shell, but since MEND first evoked a possible war on the oil industry on Saturday there have already been two attacks on Shell facilities and two “shooting incidents” at facilities operated by US oil giant Chevron.

September 14, 2008  The main militant group in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern region, has vowed massive retaliation for Saturday’s offensive on its positions by the army. Gilbert da Costa has more in this report from Abuja.  The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, is warning oil companies to pull workers out in the next 24 hours or face what it called “a hurricane of retaliation.

The group has threatened to extend its raids to the other major oil states, Bayelsa and Delta and also to attack the country’s two big deep offshore fields, Shell’s Bonga and Chevron’s Agbami.

In June MEND staged an attack on Bonga, a field which had until then been thought safely out of the reach of militant attacks. Since it first emerged in early 2006 MEND, which says it is fighting for a larger share of southern Nigeria’s oil revenue to go to local people, has cut Nigeria’s oil production by more than one quarter.

Swarm-based maneuvers: Guerrillas are using speed boats in the Niger Delta’s swamps to quickly attack targets in succession. Multiple, highly maneuverable units have kept the government and Shell’s defensive systems off-balance defending the sprawling network.  Radically improved firepower and combat training: allowing guerrillas to overpower a combination of Shell’s Western-trained private military guards and elite Nigerian units in several engagements. (One of Shell’s private military operators was captured as a hostage.)  Effective use of system disruption: Targets have been systematically and accurately selected to completely shut down production and delay and/or halt repairs, and the guerrillas are making effective use of Shell’s hostages to coerce both the government and the company.

Movement  For The Emancipation Of The Niger Delta Terrorist Attacks

May 10, 2006, an executive with the United States-based oil company, Baker Hughes, was shot and killed in the south-eastern city of Port Harcourt.

June 2, 2006 a Norwegian rig offshore Nigeria was attacked and 16 crew members were kidnapped. According to the news agency Reuters, MEND has not taken responsibility for this attack.

August 20, 2006, 10 MEND members were killed by the Nigerian military. The members were working on releasing a Royal Dutch Shell hostage. In an email to REUTERS, MEND stated, “Our response to Sunday’s killings will come at our time, but for certain it will not go unpunished.”

October 2, 2006, 10 Nigerian soldiers were killed off the shore of the Niger Delta in their patrol boat by a MEND mortar shell. Earlier that day a Nigerian/Royal Dutch Shell convoy was attacked in the Port Harcourt region resulting in some people being wounded.

October 3, 2006, a militant group abducted four Scots, a Malaysian, an Indonesian and a Romanian from a bar in Akwa Ibom state.

October 4, 2006, Nigerian soldiers attacked a militant camp, in the ensuing battle 9 Nigerian soldiers were killed.

November 22, 2006, Nigerian soldiers attempted a rescue of kidnapped oil workers which resulted in one soldier being killed.

May 1, 2007, MEND seized six expatriate workers from an offshore oil facility owned by Chevron. The group of six consisted of four Italians, an American and a Croat. On the same day, MEND published photos of the captives seated on white plastic chairs in a wooden shelter around the remains of a campfire.

May 3, 2007, MEND seized eight foreign hostages from another offshore vessel. The hostages were released less than 24 hours later, stating they had intended to destroy the vessel and did not want more hostages.

May 8, 2007, three major oil pipelines (one in Brass and two in the Akasa area) were attacked, shutting down oil production and cutting power to a facility run by Italian oil company Agip, part of the ENI energy group. An e-mail statement from a MEND spokesperson said, “Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked and destroyed three major pipelines in Bayelsa state… We will continue indefinitely with attacks on all pipelines, platforms and support vessels.”

September 23, 2007, a MEND spokesperson named Jomo Gbomo informed, through a letter, that MEND had officially declared war, effective 12 midnight, September 23, 2007, and that they would be commencing “attacks on installations and abduction of expatriates.”

November 13, 2007, MEND militants attacked Cameroonian soldiers on the disputed Bakassi peninsula killing more than 20 soldiers.

May 3, 2008, MEND militants attacked Shell-operated pipelines in Nigeria, forcing the company to halt 170,000 barrels a day of exports of Bonny Light crude.

June 20, 2008, MEND naval forces attacked the Shell-operated Bonga oil platform, shutting down 10% of Nigeria’s oil production in one fell swoop. The oil platform, Shell’s flagship project in the area capable of extracting a massive 200,000 barrels of oil a day, was widely assumed to be outside the reach of the militants due to its location 120km off-shore. This attack has demonstrated a level of prowess and sophistication never before seen by the rebels and it is now known that all of Nigeria’s oil platforms are within range of MEND attack.

Update 9/21/2008: Nigeria’s main militant group has declared a ceasefire, following a week of attacks on oil installations in the country’s oil-rich Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it had taken the decision after appeals from tribal leaders in the region. But it warned it would end the truce if attacked by the army again. Mend declared “war” on Nigeria’s oil industry last Sunday after a fierce military raid on one of its bases. Groups such as Mend claim to be fighting for greater control over oil wealth in the impoverished Niger Delta, but they are accused of making money from criminal rackets and trade in stolen oil

Christmas Terrorist Attack 12/25/2009
On Christmas Day a Nigerian student attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it arrived over Detroit, Michigan airspace shortly before landing. The suspect, 23-year-old Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab is enrolled at the University of London in England as an engineering student. In Nigeria, Abdulmutallab checked no baggage on his trip that originated in Lagos on a KLM flight to Amsterdam, where he changed planes to the Northwest flight, according to Harold Demuren, director-general of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority
The Northwest Flight was arriving from Amsterdam , Netherlands when Abdulmutallab attempted to ignite a small explosive device with a syringe. Federal authorities have been told that Abdulmutallab allegedly had taped some material to his leg, then used a chemical-laden syringe to mix with the powder while on board the airplane, one official said
The facts are still emerging, but there are strong suggestions of a Yemen-al-Qaida connection and an intent to blow up the plane over U.S. airspace,” said Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who heads the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence

People on the flight described a chaotic scene that began with a popping sound followed by flames erupting at Abdulmutallab’s seat. Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch passenger on the flight from Amsterdam, leaped across the aisle to grab the suspect, who according to authorities suffered burns on his legs. “I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away,” Schuringa said. Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam landed safely in Detroit, Michigan around noon Friday, with several of the 278 passengers sustaining minor injuries in the incident.

Abdulmutallab will remain under treatment in the hospital at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It was unclear whether Abdulmutallab’s name was entered into the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, which includes people with known or suspected contact or ties to a terrorist or terrorist entity.

Nigeria is a growing battleground in the new holy war being waged by Radical Islam. If you get to the basics of the current terrorism mindset, a holy war is what the world is experiencing, whether or not governments view it as such is another story. It is no secret that al Qaeda and other radical Islamists groups are waging a war against the West and Israel. No matter where radical Islam buries it’s roots, violence will follow. It is happening quickly in parts of Africa. Sudan, Somalia, and many others. Nigeria is one of the many others.

Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa with 140 million people, is divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south. Clashes between gangs of Muslim Hausas and mostly Christian Beroms has become a major problem in the African country. In the past week clashes between the Muslim and Christian gangs U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says more than 200 people have been killed in the past three days of violence. Security forces have been overwhelmed by the violence and are unable to stop the current outburst of bloodshed. The city of Jos has seen repeated outbreaks of sectarian violence over the last decade, resulting in hundreds of deaths. With the precise cause for this latest spasm unclear. Nigeria Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has deployed soldiers in Jos to restore the peace disrupted since Sunday by sectarian violence, which has left scores of persons dead and, on Tuesday, necessitated a 24-hour curfew imposed by Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang.

Rioting began on Sunday in the city after Muslim youths set a Catholic church ablaze. Witnesses said rioters armed with knives, homemade firearms, and stones attacked passers-by and fought with security forces, leaving bodies in the street and stacked in local mosques. In December security forces clashed in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi, a day after members of an Islamic sect clashed with security forces. Police said 38 people were killed, including the leader of the sect. The clashes erupted when the religious sect, which is known as Yan Kala Kato, began attacking security forces over the arrest of its leader, Malam Badamasi.

In February 2002 – Some 100 people are killed in Lagos in clashes between Hausas from mainly-Islamic north and ethnic Yorubas from predominantly-Christian southwest. Thousands flee. City’s governor suggests retired army officials stoked violence in attempt to restore military rule.

In November 2002 – More than 200 people die in four days of rioting stoked by Muslim fury over the planned Miss World beauty pageant in Kaduna in December. The event is relocated to Britain.

In February 2006 – More than 100 people are killed when religious violence flares in mainly-Muslim towns in the north and in the southern city of Onitsha.

In October 2006 – Spiritual leader of Nigeria’s millions of Muslims, the Sultan of Sokoto, is killed in a plane crash, the country’s third major civilian air disaster in a year.

In November 2008 – At least 200 people are killed during clashes between Christians and Muslims in the central Nigerian town of Jos.

In July 2009 – Hundreds die in northeastern Nigeria after the Boko Haram Islamist movement launches a campaign of violence in a bid to have Sharia law imposed on the entire country. Security forces storm Boko Haram’s stronghold and kill the movement’s leader.

In August 2009 – Mohammed Yusuf, leader of the Islamic sect whose members staged attacks across north Nigeria leaving 700 people dead is arrested and facing charges that he had received money from an al-Qaeda linked organisation, defence analysts have revealed. Mr Yusuf was accused of receiving money from an alleged al-Qaeda group in Sudan to recruit young men to his organisation.

Nigeria, with its large number of impoverished, disenfranchised and devoutly Muslim young men, easy access to weapons and endemic corruption may seem to be the ideal breeding ground for anti-western radicals. Their is fear of a growing al Qaeda presence in the country. Nigeria has a long history of Islamic uprisings against “corrupt” rulers, dating back to the largest in West Africa’s history, the jihad of Usman Dan Fodio in 1804. Dan Fodio unified the Hausa city states under what became known as the Sokoto Caliphate, and many subsequent sects refer to that time as a “golden age”. It was believed by Nigerian terrorism experts that their radicals were no involved in the global terrorism network, but rather concentrated on Nigerian politics. This has been proved wrong by the recent December 2009 Christmas Day attack that failed in the skies over Detroit when a Nigerian student attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it arrived over Detroit, Michigan airspace shortly before landing. The Northwest Flight was arriving from Amsterdam , Netherlands when Abdulmutallab attempted to ignite a small explosive device with a syringe. Federal authorities have been told that Abdulmutallab allegedly had taped some material to his leg, then used a chemical-laden syringe to mix with the powder while on board the airplane.

I have a feelin that we will see many more Nigerian linked terrorists in the near future as the country is ripe for the pickins for recruiting impoverished and disenchanted youth to carry out the New Holy War.